Projekttage bei der Schule (Project Days at school) - Mittwoch, 19.6.13

Lily and Deborah having a blast during our dance course

Today was the first of three days of the collaborative project between the German and American students. Through the school student council at Kaiser Wilhelm und-Ratsgymnasium, these project days were organized throughout the entire school. For three days, students participate in a "project" in school, instead of attending regular classes.

Teachers host these projects and any student (grades 5-11, [12th is already done]) can sign up to participate. Some projects involve learning about computer science, soccer, bicycling, theater, and many other activities. Although the American students seemed a bit bummed out that they would not be experiencing as much of the everyday experience at school, they were excited by the opportunity to collaborate with our hosts.

Our project is titled "Internationale Bekannschaft" (International Friendship). Our host teachers organized a dance course for all students to do at the beginning of each day during "Projekttage". It is not uncommon for German teenagers to learn how to dance (ballroom style). Several German students shared that they were taking a dance course or had taken a dance course outside of school. Our dance teacher was a student from KWR (I think) and taught us the "Discofox" and the "Cha Cha Cha". We tried our best and certainly had many awkward and funny moments. The teachers were learning these dances too!

After our dance course, we had a break and then came back together begin work making skits about the differences between American and German culture. We watched a short clip from "Night on Earth" (please be aware of vulgar language). It has an excellent depiction of the silly things that can happen when two people from different cultures meet each other. Then students were put into groups of three and then we gave suggestions about what topics their skit could cover. For example, they could write a skit about the following cultural differences: food, false cognates (e.g. the word "Rock" in German means skirt), service mentality, shaking hands, the differences in water (carbonated and tap), and many more. Most groups had enough time to write a skit, tomorrow they will practice it, and on Friday, they will perform it for our project group. I can already tell that all skits will be amazing! The work that these students have been doing has been quite impressive!

Only two more days here in Hannover. Huge sigh of sadness coming from myself and many students. It will be exciting to be Berlin, but it will be hard to say, "Tschüß" to all of these incredible people.

Disclaimer: 

Please excuse grammatical errors, With this little amount of sleep and the constant "go go go" our our days, this German teacher is struggling to think and produce sentences in English. Tee-Hee!

German and American students brainstorming about "Internationale Bekannschaft" skit

(L to R: Gunnar, Madelynn, Marlon, Max, Brynnen, and Lara)

Photos from this Day